It didn't take a genius
by Jakinbandw
Summary: Shego realizes that Ron might be smarter than he let's on. She confronts him and finds out that she has no idea...
1. It didn't take a genius

**It Doesn't Take a Genius**

Something wasn't right. Shego lowered her magazine and looked around trying to figure out what it was. She could here Drakken laughing in the next room so she knew everything was fine over there. That meant that something had changed in her room. Her eyes narrowed, she had made it quite clear to all the henchmen that her room was off limits. That meant that either one of them had been foolish enough to brave her wrath or...

"Nope, not here Rufis." a pause, "Wait, this is sick and wrong! What is Drakken planning to do with a draw full of girls underwear?"

Shego realized what had been off, there was clothes all over the floor. Turning around in her chair she saw Ron holding up a pair of her unmentionables, looking squicked out.

"Did it occur to you that more than one person has to live in this lair?" She asked as she lit up her hands.

"Wha?! Uh..." Ron tripped backwards and winced as he hit the floor before scrambling backwards away from Shego, "Hey, uh... I don't suppose that you'll let me just apologize and leave, would you? We're both sidekicks, that kind of makes us like brother and sister. Well except that I am not related to you and you are evil and... Eep!" Ron winced as a plasma blast hit in front of his feet.

"That would be a no. Where's Possible?" Shego stood up and stretched keeping an eye on the sidekick.

"She's dealing with DNAmy. Something to do with Octopeyes"

"Don't you mean octopi?" Shego asked

"No, I meant octopeyes" Ron shuddered, "don't ask"

"Okay..." Shego blinked a few times before deciding to stop that line of questioning, there were somethings she just did not want to know. "But that doesn't answer the question of 'what are you doing here' as far as I know Drakken finally finished repairing the place after Fridays fight. He hasn't had time to start any new projects."

"Yeah, well..." Ron scratched the back of his neck nervously, "I lost my belt during the fight and I was hoping that I could find it..."

Shego raised an eyebrow, "Your belt? What is it a family heirloom or something?"

"No... well, Kim gave it to me for our halfiversary. I still don't get what that is though..."

"So you came to get a gift that the princess gave you?" Shego asked smirking, "Aww... Isn't that sweet."

"Hey, a guy has to do his best for his girlfriend!"

"Right, and where is the rodent?"

"Rufus? He went with Kim, I figured that she could use the help"

"So that means that it's just you and me?" Shego said taking a step forward, hands raised and plasma on full.

"Um... yes?" Ron squeaked, realizing just how much trouble he was in.

"Good" Shego suddenly sat back down and crossed her arms. Ron surprised at this reaction stopped cowering for a second, but didn't let down his guard. Shego looked at the young man speculatively, "So I've been wondering... How come you act so stupid?"

"What?" Ron said taken aback by the question "Uh... Well I wouldn't say stupid, maybe just not as smart as everyone else, uh, in most..." He stopped as she raised a glowing finger towards him

"No I mean it, you are smarter than you let on."

"Huh?"

"You think I am blind? I saw what you did when you were evil, twice I might add. The first time I could attribute to the fact that you got your wires crossed with Drakken, but that doesn't explain why he was still able to invent things. No, somehow you have super genius intellect in your head. What I want to know is why you never use it..."

Ron looked stunned. "uh..."

"I mean going evil or good doesn't give you any special abilities, I should know, I've done it more than once." Shego winced at the memories, "and yet you gain all kinds of skill when you go evil. That means that it isn't the machine that gives you power, it's that you hide it most of the time" Shego looked at Ron curiously, "So tell me, what gives?"

Ron sighed and leaned back against the wall "You really are something Shego, you know that? Kim's been with me for years and never realized it, Wade is a super genius, and Mrs. Dr. P is a brain surgeon and they never guessed."

She looked at Ron, and at the calm he that was on his face and suddenly felt a wave of fear. There was no trace of his goofy smile, no trace of the fear that he had shown earlier, only calm confidence. "Whatever. What is your deal?" She flared her hands without realizing it and realized that she was on her feet in a crouch. She would have felt foolish, but there was something wrong with Ron, she was reminded of how he had been when he was Zorpox, but this was different even than that.

"My deal? Simple, you can call me a... Caretaker. Ron isn't home right now, or at least not the Ron that you know. You were forcing him to see the truth, and that made me have to step in and do something"

"You're a caretaker? Right... so where is Ron and why does it matter to you what he knows or doesn't know?"

"Ron is asleep. And it matters a great deal to me what he knows and what he doesn't know, considering that I was created to stop him from ever realizing his potential"

"Wait, hold on, who created you?"

"Ron"

"Ron created you to keep himself from realizing his potential? Yeah, excuse me if I don't exactly believe you" Shego narrowed her eyes, even if this wasn't the sidekick speaking it was still his body, and she doubted that it was in very good shape, all she would have to do is outlast him till his body gave out.

"Hey, I didn't say your Ron created me, I said Ron. As in, the true Ron, the one that made both of us."

"You're not making any sense, you know that?"

"Fine, tell me this, is Drakken happy?"

Shego blinked at the non-sequitur, ".Well..."

"He tries to take over the world and end up in prison most of the time, am I wrong?"

"No..."

"And why is that do you think?"

"Because he is a mad scientist."

"And that is more true than you realize Shego. He is probably one of the 10 smartest people in the world"

"You're kidding me. Dr. D? He needs to be reminded to put on his pants some mornings! He isn't a genius at all."

"That's where you are wrong Shego. You know better than that I'll wager. He is able to understand, if not invent brilliant devices in almost every field of science. Sometimes he steal the devices, but to even understand the theories from so many branches of science... That is pretty impressive."

"Okay, you're right, Dr. D is clever, but what does that have to do with Ron and you and... Ron?"

"You figured it out yourself, Ron is a genius, even smarter than Dr. Drakken. Consider that for a moment."

Shego did, and realized what this person that claimed to be Ron's caretaker was getting at, "You're saying that Ron is one of the top 10 smartest people in the world?"

"I am saying that as far as I know, he is the smartest"

"Ok, that is bull. If he was so smart why didn't he take over the world? He should have been easily been able to do it"

"Because I was working against him. I won't go into the details, suffice to say that when you have multiple personalities your partially shielded from the effect of the attitudinator." Ron shuddered, "Not that I ever want to go through that again"

"Ok, so Ron wasn't able to completely use all of his mind while he was a villain, but this doesn't answer the question of why he would want to stop himself from being a genius in the first place"

"Ah, but that was what I was getting too. I know why Drew went evil, and why you turned evil and stick by him. The only difference is that Ron saw it coming and decided to do something about it"

"What do you mean" Shego glared at Ron, she knew that no one could know what had happened. It was impossible.

"Simple, you realized that glowing rocks give you cancer, not superpowers. Yet here you are, with superpowers and no cancer, so what happened?" Ron raised his eyebrow in a rather smug way, "You asked around and found out that you had been given an experimental treatment at the hospital. No one would tell you who had invented it, and you went looking. Eventually you ran into Drew. He was out on the streets. You found out that he had saved your lives, but his college had stolen his idea and used it for his thesis. In a fit of rage he had destroyed the research and his college's paper, and was thrown out of university." Ron paused then shrugged, "Or something like that. And you said thank you and you were nice to him. You comforted him, you even helped him get revenge. And that was where it started. All Drew had wanted was to help people, and yet every time he tried he was laughed at, and stolen from. Now with a warrant out for both of you he made a decision, one that almost every genius makes. If the world wouldn't recognize him for his genius, than they would at least fear him for it. You were wanted too, and he had saved your life, so you stuck with him."

Shego sat in shock. Ron had hit most of the highlights, and while not everything was correct, enough was that she knew he wasn't guessing, "but... How?"

"It's obvious. It's a choice that every genius ends up being forced to make. One that leads to a life of unhappiness. As I said, Ron was smart. So he made a choice. He would go to sleep and live his life as a normal person. He created Ron to be exactly as he was, without the brain power, and me to watch over him to make sure nothing went wrong. I can change how smart Ron is from moment to moment. I keep things fairly equal, make sure that nothing bad happens to him. Make sure that he never has a chance to go evil." Ron paused, "You know he could conquer the world quite easily if he went villain. If I hadn't managed to hold out during the attitudinator you would be living under the rule of Ron. Consider the fact that he is still a teenager and be glad that you aren't."

It took Shego a second to realize what he was getting at, "He would make a a..."

"A harem? Yup, almost every teenage males dream. And be under no illusions, you would be in it."

"Ugh! That is just wrong!"

"You're telling me. Anyway, Ron realized that too and so that was the other reason why he created Ron and me, it was a way to save the world from himself."

"And he has never come out since?"

"Once he did, that was to genetically engineer Rufus" seeing Shego's look he looked at her in annoyance, "What, you think that normal mole rats are able to talk and do kung-fu? He transfered 1 percent of his mind over to Rufus."

"Okay...and why should I believe you?"

"It doesn't matter if you do or not, but I felt that you should know the truth. You are the first person to guess my secret. Sides" Ron grinned, "Didn't you want to know more about the guy you're crushing on?"

"WHAT?!!"

"Oh come on, it doesn't take a genuis to figure out that you have a crush on Ron and Kim"

"Ok, that is the stuppidest..."

"Really, I know that Ron is the only guy you see on a regular basis that you can stand. When Kim isn't around you don't even attack. Often you burn off my pants just to try to figure out what I am packing, and don't think I haven't noticed you ogling Kim and I.. Not saying anything will come of it, just noting that you do."

"That is it Sidekick, you are going down!"

"If it isn't true that why are you so angry?"

With a cry Shego launched herself at Ron intending to do him great bodily harm. She was surprised when he caught her hand and pulled her into a back flip that ended with him straddling her. Both of her arms were pinned to her side. She struggled to get up, to get away from this thing. She tried flaring her hands but stopped when she realized that it would have no effect on this thing on top of her than managed to slip her hands underneath her while she struggled. "You won't get away with this!"

"Isn't that Kim's line?" the thing looked down on her using Ron's face, "Goodnight Shego." She saw him raise his hand and flick her in the forehead, then everything went black.

.x.X.x.

Shego opened her eyes. She was on the floor. What had happened? Her head felt like somebody had used it for a training dummy. Slowly standing up she saw a puddle of water and a crack in the ceiling. Wait, there was no way... Shego cursed softly realizing that she had tripped and hit her head. Scowling she stalked off to tell Dr. D that his lair needed better maintenance, though she would never admit to falling. Shego didn't slip and fall. She could only imagine what the others would say. Kim would laugh and the Sidekick would make some kind of joke. This would definitely be her little secret.


	2. What you don't know

**What you don't know**

She had been having nightmares for the last week. She didn't have nightmares. She was tough, strong. She gave others nightmares. Everyone feared her, except for maybe a nameless redhead. Yet every night she would wake up, covered in sweat, the image of a blond haired young man burned into her mind. She would lay there for hours before she could fall back asleep, but even then her sleep would be restless, and she would spend the rest of the day out of sorts, and tired.

Tired, she was so tired, all the time. Everyone at the lair was avoiding her. Drakken, the old fool, had excused himself to go in search of their next lair. He hadn't been back for three days. Everyone else stayed out of her way, so she continually found herself in the gym taking her frustrations out on the training dummies, as well as the walls and anything else that she could destroy. She did it without plasma to make it last longer, but now the final dummy had been reduced to scrap, she could do nothing but stand there and pant.

Who was this person that haunted her dreams? Who was it she was training for a battle against? She didn't know. She knew what he looked like. He had messy blond hair, and freckles. However it was his eyes that she remembered most, they were brown, and cold and dark. Try to look away and they drew you in, look into them and you found yourself looking at something that only happened to be inhabiting a human body. Something that would have no qualms of killing you. Something completely and totally amoral. Something more powerful than anything she had ever seen.

Those eyes were looking at her with an amused interest. Watching her as scientist might look at a particularly bright lab rat. Those eyes didn't fear her, they didn't even hold contempt. The held her so far below whatever lurked behind them that she might as well not exist, but she was interesting, so she was allowed to for the moment. If anyone else she knew gave her a look like that, it would make her want to kill them, but this person, this look... It had so much force behind it that she just wanted to crawl into a crack somewhere and hide.

During the short trip back to her room she thought it through for the thousandth time. When had this all started? On a Sunday afternoon, just 2 days after their last encounter with Kim Possible. The only thing that had happened that day, as far as she could remember was that she had slipped on a wet spot of floor. She had asked Drakken to fix it. But on the other hand she hadn't told anyone that she had fell, nor got it checked out. She had taken worse from fighting Kim Possible before hadn't she? She couldn't have some brain damage from so minor a thing could she? She was starting to wonder.

But maybe it would be a good idea to get a check up, who knew what could have happened when the last death ray exploded. Maybe something hit her and caused a delayed reaction? Maybe Kim Possible had used some new weapon against her? She didn't think so, but it might be worth it to look over the video of their last fight.

So she wandered into security, and sat down. The henchmen had vacated just before she arrived, but she didn't really care right now. Slowly she went through the files and found the recording. It wasn't long as fights went. She was pretty proud of how it had gone. She was even starting to win... Till things started to explode when the pink rat thing had chewed through some important wires. Of course Drakken had been caught up in arguing with Ron and hadn't noticed.

Ron... As she looked at his image suddenly the face that had been haunting her dreams flashed in front of her. The face... It was Ron? She wasn't scared of Ron! But no... she realized there were differences. First of all the face, the man from her dreams was full of self confidence that Ron lacked. Ron was a fool, a normal person roped into helping the Princess. He didn't do anything but provide a few laughs. Occasionally his bumbling had stopped a few plans, but his rat thing had more self confidence then he did.

Still she couldn't shake the feeling, strange as it was that Ron was more than he appeared. That she was forgetting something important about him. The question was, what was she forgetting? She considered dismissing it. It really wasn't that important. Ron had nothing to do with the dreams. All she would have to do is double the dose of sleeping pills that she was taking yet again. Yet still something inside her resisted. Some stubborn part of her felt that she needed to find out what it was that she was forgetting. There was a reason that she and Drakken had lasted as long in the villain business as they had. It was because both of them were incredibly tenacious.

So once again she went for a walk, down the hall to the 'Junk' room. A place that she had made a note to learn more about after the first Zorpox episode. One of the new additions to the room was a memory recall device that Drakken had built after the fiasco with the cue cards. It had taken him a long time, but he swore it worked. As odd as it might sound to an outsider she trusted him. It was only his doomsday devices that messed up on. His more normal ones worked just fine.

As she strapped the machine to her head she gave a shake of her head wondering what had gotten into her. She wanted to forget the face in her dreams, not remember it. Still, maybe there was something important about the sidekick that she had forgotten, and while it might be trivial it would drive her crazy till she remembered it. It probably wasn't important to remember though, and this was overkill.

As she sat in the chair of the Remembrance Enhancing Machine she was startled to realize that she could not turn it on. It wasn't a physical limitation. The button was right in front of her finger. She just could not for the life of her press it. It might not be important. It wasn't. She would just get up and go back to her life, maybe berate some henchmen for the fun of it.

Without realizing it a small charge of plasma fired from her finger and pressed the switch. A smirk graced her features, "Oops..."

Lights, and sounds rushed around her. Then there she was, back in her room, meeting the Caretaker. Being surprised that he was able to guess how she had become a villain. Learning fear as she realized just how outclassed she was. Experiencing the rage as he implied that she actually was bi and had a crush on both Ron and Kim. Knowing hopelessness as he sat on top of her and raised his finger... and erased her memory!

The machine released her and she fell away from it, reaching out to the wall for support. She just leaned there for a moment trying to process this information. Even Drakken had never tried to erase her memories. It had been so hard to break the block. If she hadn't been so determined she never would have done it... never would have remembered. She had found it difficult to even want to remember.

Now she knew why. The Caretaker had erased her memories. However he had not taken into account her determination. Now the question was what to do? She couldn't confront him. Next time he might do something much more permanent. Attack Ron without telling him? Who knew what would happen then. The caretaker might give Ron a boost and she wasn't sure she could beat him. No, she was sure she couldn't. The one time that Drakken had used mind control on both her and Kim neither of them had been able to catch him.

Why had she never noticed that before? They had been fighting up to form that day, but Ron had defeated both of them, even with restraints on. Then there was that time with the Lowardians. Ron claimed that he had used up all his Power in the fight, but what if he hadn't? What if it was still there, just he was not able to tap into with without the Caretaker's permission? No, she doubted that she could take Ron out.

Also if what the Caretaker said was true, then she and Drakken could never succeed at taking over the world. It was impossible. Maybe if they could get Ron away from Kim so that he stopped caring so much. Still... Even that was a stretch. No.

So what was left for her? She remembered the jeering of her fellow students when they laughed at her green skin. She remembered finding Drakken, only a few years ago. She had rescued him from some men that were after him. He still hadn't told her why. They had talked, and eventually made a vow to take over the world. A few bank robberies later they were in business.

Drakken... He was something of a father to her. Her own father had died in the meteor impact, and Hego never acted like a real father. He was too stupid. Drakken was sometimes dense, but she had to admit, if only privately, she was impressed with some of the things he had created. If the caretaker was to be believed, he was a true genius. That didn't stop her from teasing him though! She was free, and she enjoyed it.

Freedom. Now there was a thought. They had thought about what they would do once they had taken over the world. Mostly they had decided that they would try to make life a little better for people. Drakken had a new robot that could reconstruct things, and he figured that after the clean up, he could use them to start housing projects. Help get people off the streets.

Of course they had agreed to do anything they could to stop people from looking down on those who were different. That was what had made them choose their life in the first place. They would get rid of crime, and just try to make the world better. Now that she reflected on it, was that so different from what Ron and Kim were trying to do? When they had saved the world from the Warlardians that spring the world had actually cheered them on, despite how different they looked.

And the more she thought about it, the more she began to chuckle while imagining the site on Kim's face when she came to stop a villain only to find out that she had been beaten to the punch. It was fun riling up Kimmie. No she didn't like her like 'that' but she would admit, Kim was kinda cute.

Never mind that. The real question, she thought to herself as she walked back to her room, is if Drakken will go along with it. She was pretty sure that she could convince him, but she would have to wait and see. It wouldn't be easy, but if he went along with it, it could be a nice change of pace. Maybe just once and for all she could prove that she was better than the Princess!

As for Ron, she thought tiredly as she climbed into bed. It was a shame that Kim had taken him. That much power, mixed with his normal kindness. He would be completely reliable. Kim didn't know how lucky she was to have him. Even the Caretaker, she thought before she slipped away, had been nice. It would have been much safer for him to just kill her, but instead he had given her a chance. For that, she was greatful.

.x.X.x.

Fear the evil plot bunnies! I actually did not expect to be making a sequal to this story. I did try after I wrote it, but I couldn't see any way to keep it going. Shego had forgotten, and the Caretaker wouldn't show up again. I didn't have anywhere to go. It wasn't till yesterday, while I was looking up some stuff from another of my stories that I read it, and my muse handed me this story on a silver platter. It is differant, and you may not like it, but I do, so I really don't care.

Will there be another chapter? Maybe. This was made to stand alone, but who knows?

Finally, the bit about Drakken being a father figure. I don't know, it just always seemed that way to me. Drakken is the same age as Kim's father, and yet Shego only seems a few years older than Kim. Especially when you look at her brothers. I see them having a father daughter relationship in the show, not a lover, lovee one. I mean, why else do you think drakken was so squicked out when Shego came on to him?


	3. Change Is Good

**Change Is Good**

Shego stood on the roof of the museum and looked down through the skylight. There, in the center of the room was an amulet. It sat on a pedestal, and around it she could see the faint light of multiple lasers, belonging to some sort of high tech security system. It didn't really matter, such things wouldn't protect the precious amulet from getting stolen. They were useless unless there was someone who could respond to the alarms fast enough to stop whoever wanted to steal it. There was only one person in the world who could do such a thing, and Shego knew that she was busy with Dementor right now. Dementor was trying to copy what Drakkon had accomplished, and might have stood a decent chance of succeeding if he had remembered that The Redhead already had dealt with that plan once before. Either way it meant that Kimmy was busy, and this museum was ripe to be robbed.

Shego bent down and flipped open the window, that would trigger an alarm somewhere she knew, but that was inconsequential and really wouldn't matter. What mattered was the next five minutes. Stealthily she dropped to the floor, hidden in the shadows. Quickly she covered the distance to the wall, and flipped on the the main lights for the room. There in the center of the room was DNAmy along with a few monkey ninja's. They all jumped and turned to Shego before relaxing.

"Hi there Shego! What did Drakken send you to get today? I'm hear for this lovely amulet, according to my research it should allow me to free poor Monkey Fist from being stoned! Of course once I told his monkey ninjas what I was up to they just begged to tag along. Sorry, look at me, I'm rambling" DNAmy paused for air and Shego wondered how on earth this woman managed to steal anything. DNAmy was big and seemed to be wearing a ninja's garb that was far to small for her, the look was disconcerting and might have even caused Shego to leave and let nature take it's course, however the look in DNAmy's eyes betrayed a keen mind. If DNAmy was left alone who knew what would happen.

"Well actually..." Shego drew out the word with a smirk on her face. This would be fun, maybe not beat down the princess fun, but still fun, "Drakken sent me to get you. See him and I? We had a talk and decided to stop being villians. As much fun as it is, it isn't something that we see working out. So we sat down and thought what else could we do that would be fun. Being heroes was out, so we figured why not be anti-heroes? All the fun with a much higher chance of success."

DNAmy's eyes narrowed, "You're turning your back on the community? After all that we have done for the two of you?"

"Let me think about it," Shego brought a finger to her lips thoughtfully, then took it away with a nasty grin, "Yeah, pretty much. So do you want to give yourself in, or am I allowed to have some fun? Oh wait, I'm not a hero, I don't need to ask!" With that Shego launched a blast of plasma at the monkey ninjas. She didn't know how good a fighter DNAmy was, and she wasn't going to attack someone who was helpless despite what she said. Well, she wasn't going to hurt them much anyway.

The monkey ninjas dodged. That wasn't much of a surprise. DNAmy jumping up up about ten feet into the air with a battle cry before coming down where Shego had been standing but a moment before? That was. And then the fight was on. Monkey ninjas individually weren't much of a threat, but the dozen or so there forced Shego to divert much needed attention to keeping them away from her when she should have been focusing on DNAmy. Because now she realized that DNAmy was fast, and strong. Her size that Shego had mistaken for fat had concealed a lot of muscle, and every punch that she through shattered stone.

Shego ducked behind a pillar to get a moment to herself, it was time to change strategies. She was used to fighting one on one and she had forgotten what it was like to be outnumbered. Still, she had her experience from her days as a teen hero to draw on, so the next monkey to leap at her got grabbed. Using the monkey as an improvised weapon she leaped at the others who fell back from her, unsure of how to attack around their ally. The pillar behind Shego cracked and Shego tossed the monkey into his friends and turned to pay her full attention to DNAmy undisturbed for a few seconds.

The next punch that DNAmy through Shego was ready for, she blocked with one hand and drove her elbow into DNAmy's gut stunning her. With the free second that she had bought herself, she grabbed DNAmy and through her into the monkeys that were just starting to move towards her knocking them all into a heap in the corner of the room. For good measure she added a blast of plasma to make sure they stayed down long enough for her to get the handcuffs on them.

"Oof!" DNAmy grunted in pain, "Good little girls don't hit people when their down!"

She sauntered over to them, forcing herself to breath steadily, making it look as if she hadn't broken a sweat. "Then isn't it a good thing that I'm am naughty girl?" Shego started cuffing them, making sure that the cuffs were secure and wouldn't come off, "Don't worry, the cops will be here soon to take you to prison. You'll be nice and comfy there. Trust me. I know"

Shego dusted off her hands and turned around to leave before the cops could get there and froze.

In front of her stood a stunned Kim and Ron. The grappling hook in Kim's hand told Shego that they had come in the same way she had, and the stunned look on their face told her that they heard enough to guess what was going on. "Uh, hey Princess... I was just... leaving?" Shego couldn't think of what to say. There wasn't exactly a manual for this. If there was it would be titled something like 'What to do when your heroic nemesis catches you in the middle of making your turn from villian into anti-hero.'

"Shego... What's going on here?" Kim sounded like she had just caught Mr. Barken kissing Moter Ed. Confused, and very disturbed, but trying to sound like she wasn't because she wasn't sure if what she was witnessing was something immoral or not.

Shego heard sirens and said a quick thanks to whatever saint looked after criminals that were trying to reform, "Can we talk somewhere else Princess? I don't really want the cops to run into me. I still a warrant out for my arrest you know."

"Bueno Nacho!" Everyone looked at Ron in surprise, "It's like right across the street, and no one would think to look for you there. Sides, I'm friends with the management there." He paused, "Uh, Kim, could you explain to everyone what happened here or something? Shego and I will wait for you over there."

Kim was still so stunned she didn't notice the change in Ron, she just nodded blankly and said, "Uh... Yeah. I'll see you there." Shego however did. Ron didn't give the Cheerleader orders, that could only mean one thing. Shego looked into the Caretakers eyes, and saw him smirk.

.x.X.x.

A few minutes later they were in Bueno Nacho. The Caretaker hadn't said anything to her yet. He had just walked ahead of her silently. Shego had considered just running, but decided that it was not worth the risk. She still might get out of this alive, after all, she hadn't threatened his masquerade. So now they sat, face to face across a plate of some disgusting Mexican food.

"So, you recovered your memories I see. I guess I should have done a better job erasing them" The Caretaker looked at Shego with the same respect one might give their pet mouse if it had managed to escape from it's cage. The rest of the look was mostly annoyance.

"Yes well, I suppose even the great Caretaker can make mistakes." Shego wanted to put her hands over her mouth. When would she learn not to taunt people stronger than her. Especially when they could kill her and erase any memory that she ever existed. Not for the first time she wondered if she had a death wish.

The Caretaker didn't take any offense though, "True, I am only a mental construct. I did not anticipate that you would remember, or that it would cause you to act the way it did. However that is not the reason I wanted to talk to you." He paused and took a drink of pop thoughtfully, "Do you want to remember me? You would be happier if you didn't. With a bit more time, and some cooperation from you I could easily remove any knowledge of my existence from your memory." Shego went to answer, but her stopped her with a raised hand, "I could leave your motivation intact so that you are the same person you are now, and it would be easier for you. You wouldn't have to live in fear of me, in fear of messing up. You could just forget all this and go back to your happy easy life."

"No. No matter what the price I want to remember. I've never been the one to take the easy way out. And where do you get off deciding what is best for me? For that matter where do you get off deciding what is best for Ron? He may have created you when he was a child, but he is an adult now. You should give him the same choice you are giving me. You should let him choose whether he wants his genius or not. Everyone has to grow up eventually Caretaker." Shego barely noticed that she had ripped the chair with her hands while she was talking. Everything she had been thinking about since she regained her memory poured out. She knew it wasn't smart, but this... this Caretaker had been manipulating Ron his entire life, and she felt that she had to stand up for him.

The Caretaker looked at her, and for a second she thought she would die, right there in that chair, and she started to pray. The the Caretaker chuckled, "I truly did not give you enough credit Shego. Fair's fair. You don't have to worry, there isnt' any price to pay for keeping your memories, only the memories themselves. As for Ron..." The caretaker trailed off apparently thinking, "You bring up a good point. The only way I could stop you from telling him right now is to kill you, and Ron wouldn't want that, as easy as it would be. While I could make it so he would never believe you, that would be messing with his free will. Something I am not supposed to do. All I am supposed to do is to make sure that he doesn't become because of how smart he is and take over the world. So yes I will talk to him."

Shego felt relief wash though her as she realized that she wouldn't be killed, or have her memory erased. Then blinked in confusion as the person in front of her slumped and closed his eyes. When they opened again she was looking at Ron. The difference wasn't immediately noticeable to a casual observer, but to Shego it was like the difference between night and day. She wasn't sure what he'd say, if he had chosen to remember at all, so she kept quiet, waiting.

His first words told her that he had chosen to remember, "You have a crush on me?"

She looked at him incredulously, his life had just gotten turned upside down, he found out that he was a genius, and he was focusing on that little fact? Errr... On that little fiction? "No!" Shego said anger, and then found herself wishing that she could stop the warmth from rising to her face. To divert that line of questioning she asked, "More importantly, what did you choose?"

"Oh, I chose to know the Caretaker exists, but to just let him do his job." Shego looked at him in surprise, "Well he's part of who I am right? I mean if I became a genius I wouldn't be me, you know? I don't want to forget anything, but on the other hand I am fine with the Caretaker watching out for me. He is like a guardian angel." Ron paused, "You have a crush on me and Kim?"

"I Do Not!" Shego yelled, and was suddenly glad that Bueno Nacho was empty at two in the morning. She lowered her voice, "And even if I did think that you are hot, and Kim was sexy you two are together so nothing would ever come of it, understand? No matter what the Caretaker told you, it doesn't matter. I won't come between the two of you."

Ron held up his hands defensively, "Okay, okay. Sorry. It just surprised me. I thought you hated us."

Shego rolled her eyes, "I could say something cliché like love and hate are very close together, but I won't. I never hated you guys, we were just on opposite sides, and I hate losing."

"Oh." Ron was silent for a minute before asking, "So how am I going to tell Kim?"

"You're asking me sidekick? Your the one with the Caretaker in your head, ask him." She slouched back and tried to glare at him to hide the fact that she had no clue. She hadn't planned for Kim to catch her yet. She was hoping to have a chance to figure out a story and cement herself as one of the good guys. Now it seemed that everything had gone down the tubes. Ron knew about her crush, Kim knew about her trying to be a goody two shoes, and she was stuck in front of some pretty horrific food. Which Ron had just swallowed whole. Disgusting.

She saw the naked pink thing climb up on the table and chitter at her. It almost sounded like, "Did you just ask if you could have my nacho? Go ahead and take it!" Shego watched in odd fascination as Rufus dug in to the nacho. It was kinda cute, in a gross sorta way.

"I am not asking him for help. In fact I have asked him not to give me any more help then he normally would" Ron said after he swallowed. "Anyway, this is your problem too. How are you planning to explain your change of heart?"

"Well I..? Um. Hadn't thought that far ahead" Shego admitted.

The three sat in silence till Kim arrived. She sat down beside Ron and looked at Shego, "So... Hero."

"Yup" Shego replied in the same deadpan tone.

"And you didn't get hit by an attitudenator this time?" Kim pressed.

"Nope" Shego replied, despite being temped to lie and say she had.

"So why?" Kim finally asked.

Shego thought for a second, "Drakken and I decided that we couldn't win against you and Ron," and the Caretaker, Shego added silently, "And it wasn't like we were accomplishing our goal by losing all the time. So we figured that we'd try for a middle ground."

"And that middle ground would be?" Kim asked, cautiously.

"Antiheroes" Shego grinned as she took in Kimmy's shocked expression. It was almost worth everything else that had happened.

Kim shook her head in confusion, "What? What do you mean Antiheroes?"

"You know you rush in to stop villains from completing their schemes to take over the world?" Shego asked.

"Yes," replied Kim

"Drakken and I won't wait. We will take them down as soon escape prison. We won't give them time to start plotting, and because we are outside the law, we don't even have to be nice about it." Shego grinned, but the smile faded when she saw the laughter in Kim's eyes.

"Ah, so you are essentially doing what I do now." Kim grinned.

"What?" Shego asked uncertain.

"Ron and I joined Global Justice. That's why we haven't been in the news much, we are taking our college courses there." Kim chuckled, "And their philosophy is the exact same as yours."

That brought Shego up short. Here she had planned to take care of jobs that Kim couldn't, or wouldn't, but if Kim and Ron were already handling those jobs... Was there even a place for her and Drakken and her as heroes? However if Kim and Ron were working for Global Justice it suddenly made more sense on how they had arrived in time to stop the robbery despite the fact that there was a plot on the other side of the world. Global Justice would have given them a lift, and those planes could really move fast.

As Shego was assimilating everything Ron brought up another point, "Why don't you and Drakken join Global Justice as well?"

"What?" Shego asked, surprised.

Kim looked at Ron, and the two of them seemed to communicate without words, before Kim nodded and turned to Shego, "Ron has a good point, it would make it easier for you, and it would get you off the wanted list right?"

Shego stopped to think about it, she didn't know if it was a good idea, on the other hand, if Kim and Ron were there and she could see them every day. No, she wouldn't go there, still it was an idea, "I'll have to talk it over with Drakken."

Kim nodded, "That's a good idea. I hope that you will join us. You have no idea how sick I am of working with Will"

"Hey, he took care of cleanup so that we could get over here," Ron pointed out. Shego didn't know who they were talking about, but it seemed like Kim had at least one annoying coworker. Shego was surprised to find herself wanting to help Kim. It was an odd feeling, but not a bad one. Shego knew how annoying it was to work with stupid henchmen.

"Look Princess, I have to go now. Drakken will be worried about me, and if I don't show up soon he'll probably invent some sort of resurrection device that will backfire and summon a demon or something." Shego got out of her seat.

Kim nodded, "Okay, I hope you decide to join. See you around Shego."

Ron waved, "Keep in touch."

Shego walked to the door then turned back, "See you around Kimmy" then she stepped out into the night. Despite all the drama that had happened, she coudln't help but feel things were going to get better. Ron still had to tell Kim about the Caretaker, and she had to find a way to make sure he couldn't blackmail her with the knowledge of her crush, but despite that she felt something she hadn't felt in years, that she would have a place that she could go to and be safe. It was irrational, but true never the less.

Just before the door closed she heard Kim say, "Okay, so Shego's good again, I'll adjust... Again."

.x.X.x.

Authors Note:

So here we go, chapter 3. I want to say a special thanks to Data Seeker and apologize for not giving him this to beta, but I have to leave on a month long job soon so I wouldn't be able to posted if I waited. If you see any mistakes let me know and I'll fix them as soon as I can. That might take a while.

So the story continues, I finally figured out how to deal with super Ron. The Caretaker, and the Original Ron were two powerful for me to write a meaningful story around. It wasn't till I asked Ron if he would even want to be a genius that I got the answer. He wouldn't. He likes being who he is. So now I can continue if I can think of more material, and if I get another burst of creativity. I figure that I have a few loose ends that I could tie up here, maybe enough for another chapter.

Thanks for reading and goodnight!

Happy New year Data Seeker!


	4. So Not the End Of The World

**So Not The End Of The World**

The alarms rang as Shego ran up the stairs of the bank. She reached the roof and started sprinting for the edge. In the distance she could see a helicopter inbound, but she planned to be long gone before it got to the bank she had just robbed. Turning she threw a plasma bolt behind her and sealed the security door to the roof closed cutting off any pursuit from behind.

She reached the edge of the roof and found the hover bike where she had stashed it earlier. Not bothering to secure the bag of money she was holding she jumped on and gunned it to life and took off. Down below the cops saw her go and fired a shot or two at her, but they weren't expecting her and soon she was down several streets in the downtown district. As she flew under an overpass she hit a button on the bike and jumped grabbing onto an pipe that ran underneath the overpass. A hologram of her appeared on the bike and it kept going without losing speed.

She glanced around to see if anyone had been around to see, but as it was one in the morning the street below was deserted. She jumped down to the street and, after taking another quick look around, removed a manhole cover and dropped down into the sewers. She pulled the manhole cover back into place behind her leaving no trace that she had gotten off her bike.

She landed lightly on the ground and froze. There, standing in front of her, arms crossed and a scowl on her face, stood Kim Possible. Shego turned to run, only to find Ron Stoppable standing on behind in her way. Slowly she raised her hands, turned back to Kim, and gave a small shrug, "Hey Ron, Kimmy… What's up?"

"What do you think you are doing?" Kim asked. She looked exasperated, "You are a agent of Global Justice now! You can't keep doing this!"

Shego lowered he hands and tossed the bag of money behind her, "I work part time, not full time. They can't dictate what I do in my time off."

"They can if you are hurting the people you swore to protect." Kim said, still scowling.

"Oh please," replied Shego, "I stole ten thousand. The insurance will cover it, and then they will raise everyone's deductible by a fraction of a cent. This didn't hurt anyone. In fact, this will give the newshounds something to report and the police of Middleton some much needed practice. If there was a real crisis they would never be able to deal with it as they are now. They have gotten to rely on you too much. How many times did you arrive half an hour before the cops back when we were on opposite sides?"

"That's not the point…" Kim answered, but there was no heat in her voice.

"Yes it is! I swore to protect these people, and what I am doing is helping them. A week long crime spree is just the thing to get a bigger budget for the police." Shego grinned.

Kim rolled her eyes, "Yes… Stealing other people's money, that's real helpful of you."

"Eh, they should be paying me for this. It's so much better than those lousy reality tv shows that have taken over tv." There was no way that Shego was going to admit to giving the money to charities. That would ruin her image completely.

Ron walked around to stand next to Kim. He was still holding the bag of money. He glanced up at her, and his eyes went hard for a moment. In that moment she knew that the caretaker had looked at her, and that he knew exactly what she was doing. The next moment his eyes went normal again. He flashed her a grin, "I know! It's all knockoffs of Stayer now."

Kim gave an exasperated sigh, "Ron!"

Ron glanced back at his slightly tweaked girlfriend, "she has a point Kim. Anyway, now isn't the time to be talking about this. We have a sitch."

"I guess…" Kim picked up the bag, "We'll give this to global justice on the way. They can give it back to the bank and let them know that the crime wave is over." She glanced down at her watch, "We'd actually better get moving, we'll fill you in on the way." She turned and started walking over to where Ron's and her hover bikes were parked. They were just a few feet away from Shego's spare one that she had been headed for.

Shego and Ron fell into step behind her. Shego noticed that Ron's face had gone serious and realized that this wasn't going to be something simple like stopping Gemini again. "What's the Mission?" She would never stoop to saying 'sitch' like Kimmy did.

"Do you remember Graduation?" Ron asked.

Shego stopped walking. She could remember the war against the aliens. She remembered the battle, and how close it had been. It had only been the Caretaker granting Ron full access to all of his abilities that had allowed them to survive it. They had talked of what would be done if something similar happened again. Drakken and Shego had agreed to put aside any differences the instant that there was a possibility of an attack and work with the world to defend against another invasion. The whole thing had happened before they had gone back to being villains, and long before they joined Global Justice. It had happened so long ago that she had stopped worrying. Apparently that had been a mistake.

Shego started walking again thinking over the possibly, none of them good, "The Warlordians are back?" she asked, knowing the answer in her gut.

"My father just picked up a fleet of five thousand ships of what we took down on long range scanners. Anomalies suggest that there are probably a few hundred thousand smaller crafts. There are also at least three ships that we have designated Mother ships. They are each a few miles long" Kim talked as she reached her bike and climbed on.

Shego stopped and stared numbly at her bike, this was worse than they had planned for. Things were going to get bad. She was afraid. She had felt helpless when Drakken had been taken in the last invasion. The fight had been long and hard, and that had just been one ship. She did what she usually did when she was scared, she got mad, "And you were chewing me out for stealing a few thousand dollars? When this is going on, you were freaking on me for stealing? The world might not be hear in a few days. What good is money going…." She trailed off when she felt Ron's hand on her shoulder.

He spoke quietly so that Kim couldn't hear "She needed something normal. This is heavy drama for her because everyone is expecting her to somehow find a way to stop this. After all" he said in an ironic voice, "she can do anything."

In that instant Shego realized just how big a burden Kim was under. Had always been under. The brag that she had coined as a child had come back to bite her. She was expected to succeed. Always. She had pushed herself, and had succeeded most of the time, but now, she was facing the end of the world, and the world expected her to save them. A young woman with no special powers. Someone who was completely average, normal, basic… Unlike her and Ron, she only had her skill at martial arts to fall back on, and what equipment that people could coble together for her in the short time that was left.

Ron though…

Shego turned on Ron, "Isn't this what you are supposed to prevent Caretaker? The end of the world? And you just going to sit there and ignore this threat?"

Kim immediately jumped forward pulling her away from Ron with a 'get away from him'. That was fine, she didn't want to be too close to him right now. He wasn't Ron anymore anyway. The Caretaker looked at Kim and her.

"I don't think you quite understand my limitations Shego." Said the Caretaker in a cold voice, "I can work fast. I am smart. I am not able to bend the laws of reality. I can get a few good planetary cannons up and running, but against a fleet that big, with the weapons that I witnessed, it wouldn't' do much good. I might be able to make a fast planetary shield, but it would only hold for an hour. As for Mystical Monkey power, it would allow me to find them hand to hand, but could I survive against an entire fleet by myself? I know the probabilities, and let me say that it is far more likely that the sun will go out tomorrow. I'll help as much as I can, but I am most use going on the mission to negotiate with them."

Kim looked dazed, "Wha? Hey Ron? Ron?"

The Caretaker looked at Kim, "Hello, Ron's not home right now. I am the Caretaker. I control how smart and strong Ron is at any given time, with his permission."

"But… That's… Impossible!" Kim's jaw tightened, "Give Ron back!"

"Don't worry, he's fine. You can talk to him in a moment and he will explain what is going on. Right now though, you need to get ready for this mission, and I think I have a way to help you." The Caretaker raised his hand and blue power formed around it. He started moving it around tracing symbols in the air. Kim stepped forward past Shego, and Shego stepped back. She knew that the caretaker wasn't lying, but didn't' want to be anywhere near him when he was using as much power as he was.

The Caretaker pointed his finger at Kim as she closed the distance between them and a line of blue light leapt from his finger to her forehead. She rose into the air, energy crackling around her as she convulsed. After a second she fell to the ground, then slowly got to her feet. Ron ran forward to help her up, and it was Ron, the caretaker was gone.

She looked at him for a second, then down at her hands, then up at Ron again, "Why did you hide this from me?"

"Because…. Well…" Ron said scratching the back of his head, "I didn't want him to freak out. He is supposed to be a secret. I didn't find out about him till Shego confided him to tell me."

Kim looked back at Shego, "I am not going to ask right now. But we are about to have a five day trip in a space ship together, and I want some answers from both of you. However now is not the time for this drama. We have to get to GJ now! The Rocket is scheduled to launch in 20 minutes. Drakken's waiting for us."

She turned and got on her bike and took off without waiting for Shego or Ron.

Ron sighed and put his hand to his forehead, "I am in so much trouble now. Oh this is not good."

"Yeah, because Kim breaking up with you is so the end of the world. What did he do to her anyway?" Shego asked as she mounted her bike.

"He said that he taught her how to fight." Ron replied cryptically and took off.

Figures, thought Shego, you can never get a straight answer where the Caretaker was involved.

.x.X.x.

Authors Note: So... Plot bunnies do what they do best and multiplied, and now this is going to be a full story. The next chapter should be up a bit faster than is normal for me, because I have some spare time on my hands right now.


	5. This Is The Way

**This Is The Way**

Kim watched in shock as the person that had taken over Ron's body pointed a finger at her. Then the world disolved around her.

She was standing in an empty white expanse, and in front of her a shadow stood. The shadow was dark and nebulas. Every now and then I seemed to take on the form of people she had faught over years before returning to darkness again. She saw Warhawk, Shego, and the Yono all appear, then fade out.

Kim quickly realized that this was all in her mind and relaxed. She would have to just wake up. She had delt with worse sitches before. Yes she was in a hurry, but panicking wouldn't help. She closed her eyes and went through a quick mental routine that she used to wake up when she needed to go on a mission in the middle of the night. When she openned her eyes nothing had changed.

Then the shadow spoke. "Welcome," it said in a deep echoing voice "to The Way"

Well, Kim thought, at least it hadn't attacked her, but the sitch was getting really weird, really fast. Deciding that politeness was the best option asked,"How do I leave?"

"You may leave at any time. All you have to do is ask. However," the Shadow continued before she could say anything, "be aware that once you leave you may never return."

Kim bit down on her immediate request to leave. This sounded suddenly very important. She chose her next question with care, "What is the way?"

"The Way is the one true fighting style from which all others are flow. The Way is Power. The Way is a philosophy. The Way is an art. The Way can protect, and The Way can Way is niether good, nor evil, but is rather a tool that can be used for either."

Kim had heard similar claims before from several of the martial arts she knew, and it had always sounded to her like a way to impress newcomers. Somehow though, this time she believed it. Maybe the whole shadow in her mind thing helped. She was in a hurry, but maybe she had enough time to learn something new. "How long will a lesson take?" she asked the shadow mentally gauging the time she had till the rocket departed.

"The time it takes depends on the individual; however when you leave no time will have passed in the real world."

That changed things. That meant that even if the lesson was useless she could still have some time to work out what had just happenned to Ron, and how to deal with the Caretaker. Her answer was clear, "Teach me"

The shadow stopped shifting and resolved itself into Shego. "Welcome to the first step on The Way" it said in its deep, hollow voice, and then it leapt forward throwing a quick strike aimed at Kim's shoulder.

Kim had seen enough movies that she wasn't caught off guard. She raised her arm to block, and realized at the last moment that it was a fient. She managed to roll with the punch to her gut enough that it didn't take her out of the fight. Though now she had a burning pain in her side. She side stepped a follow up strike and managed to launch a quick flurry of punches at the shadow.

The first two were blocked, and on the third, the shadow grabbed her arm and threw her. Kim felt her arm pop out of its socket and the distant flash of pain that adrenaline was keeping away. As she flew through the air Kim realized that the shadow had her outmatched. Something she had not felt since her second black belt. She also realized that unlike in the classroom, there were no safeties set in place, and that the shadow was playing for keeps.

Kim landed and rolled absorbing her impact and just dodging a foot tha slammed into the spot where her head had been a moment before. She managed to scramble to her feet, though her left arm hung limply, and faced the Shadow again. She managed to block the first two attacks, but then her feet got swept from underneath her and she landed on her face. She felt a sudden pain in the back of neck, and then everything went black.

Kim openned her eyes and found herself standing in the empty white expanse across from the shadow. It still looked like Shego. Kim didn't feel any pain in her body, but the adrenaline was still running through her. Kim looked at the Shadow and openned her mouth to ask what had happenned, but the Shadow spoke before she could, "Welcome to the second step on The Way" and turn it leapt forward to attack her again.

"Welcome," said the shadow, "to the step fifty on The Way." Kim stepped aside as it attacked, and then faked a second side step and instead bent down, and grabbed the shadows leg throwing it away from her. Kim didn't follow. She used the time to gather her thoughts. She had lost to the Shadow forty nine times without much of a chance to stop and think. She was getting better at fighting, she knew it. The Shadow was always just a bit better then her though, matching her growth, and it kept pushing her to get better. If she kept this up for long she would be more than a match for anyone. Anyone, but the Warlordians. They had numbers, and if the others could fight like Warhawk and Warmonger, she was still a long way outmatched. She smiled grimly. This training was exactly what she needed if she wanted to make a difference in the upcoming battle. Maybe the person who had taken over Ron, the Caretaker, had been trying to help. Her train of though was cut off as the Shadow reached her and they started fighting again.

"Welcome to step three hundred thirty two on The Way"

Kim watched in surprise as the shadow split in two. Now she was up against two opponents that looked like Shego. They came at her together, and despite the fact that there were two of them Kim realized that she was still only slightly outmatched. The teamwork that they faught with was terrible. But in the end she hadn't managed to take them both out. I wonder, she thought as the next step faded in, if I'll have to fight more then two if I last long enough?

"Welcome to step two thousand seven hundred fifty one on The Way"

Kim looked at the hundred shadows she was against and set her jaw. She waded into them, hands and legs blurring in blocks and strikes. There were too many to gang up on her all at once, and it had become a battle of endurance for her. She was moving on pure reflex, blocking attacks from behind from sound alone. Still the shadows crowded around her, like a pack of wolves around prey, and eventually she fell.

The next Step faded in and she saw she was against a single shadow again. Then she saw that it had a gun.

"Welcome to step seven hundred fifty six thousand one hundred three on The Way"

Kim looked at the hundred forms of the shadow she was up against. Some had swords, others staves, and still others automatic weapons. She was wearing out mentally. She could feel it. But that same drive that had driven her to martial arts at such a young age, the drive that had saved her when she faught against villains with super powers when she had been a teen without any of her own, drove her foreword. She charged into the crowd before her determined to take down as many as she could.

She thought she was prepared when the next stage faded in, but when she found herself looking at a dogater cuddle-bunny she knew things were about to get worse. She was right. Her practice helped her a lot, but she was used to fighting opponents that walked upright with and didn't bite with teeth that could crush iron. Thankfully the pain was over quickly.

"Welcome to step one million four hundred twenty one thousand eight hundred twelve on The Way"

Kim looked at the Shadow in shock. She had known that her last fight would by the last one. An army of over a hundred cuddle-bunnies of every type and persuasion had been a tip off that she would be trying something new soon. She was not prepared to see Warhawk standing in front of her. He was big she knew, and he would be strong, and almost impossible to hurt. She shifted her feet into a style that she had developed against some of the tougher cuddle bunnies and held out her hand, "Bring it."

She took the initiative and dove in at him, rather than going for a high kick she feinted one and dropped her leg under his hand that had reached to grab it. Her other leg had her entire weight behind it, and it slammed into Warhawks ankle throwing it off balance. She let her momentum take her under him, and slammed her elbow into the back of his knee, knocking Warhawk to the ground. She knew that what she had done hadn't really hurt the Shadow, but she knew a few tricks now that she hadn't before. She quickly braced her body and struck a blow using all of her muscle, from her toes to her finger tips into Warhawk's side. The force of the blow was so strong that Warhawk's armor cracked, and he coughed up some blood. His hand went to his side. But he rolled to his feet and glared at Kim.

Kim was shocked; nothing had ever survived that blow before. She didn't have a name for it, but it was the strongest hit that she had learned how to deliver. How could Warhawk just shrug it off? She realized that she would have to get real fancy… In her next fight. Warhawk grabbed her with free hand and pulled his other away from his side. As he went to rip her apart she saw his hand had been covered in blood. The fight had been a close one after all. If she hadn't have frozen, she might have stood a chance.

Time passed and the fights continued. Kim reached a point where she no longer had time to concentrate on battle. She was forced to react on instinct alone. While she realized that she had reached a turning point, she found that she now was free to think as the battles went on. Her concentration was still on the fight, but she could now concentrate on other things. Like what had happened to Ron.

The Caretaker? He had called himself. He said that he was there with Ron's permission. She couldn't see any reason for him to lie, and he was helping her, in a fashion. So that meant what he said was true. Probably. There was someone very smart with access to Ron's head. What was he doing there? How powerful was he? From how he and Shego had talked, he must be very powerful. Talking about building a planetary shield had been discussed, but had been dismissed as impossible. He talked about building one in a few days, maybe a week.

Was he lying about what he could do? Kim didn't think so. Shego had believed him, and, as she had pulled that thief away from the Caretaker, she had seen fear in Shego's eyes. Shego didn't get scared easy. So that meant that she believed the Caretaker was able to do what he said. This tracked with her being put in here. She had never heard of something like this before, and could only imagine the power that would be needed for it.

So what was the Caretaker caretaker of? It sounded like the world, the way Shego had said that it was his job to stop anything bad from happening. Maybe it was something that had entered Ron with his mystic monkey power? No, that didn't track. If the Caretaker was watching over the world, why would it matter how smart Ron was?

Then she saw the light. Ron's abilities, how he had done impossible things his entire life, it all made sense. Kim didn't know where the Caretaker had come from, but he had been with Ron almost his entire life. Probably from just after they met in kindergarten. In fact…

Kim remembered one day in grade one, she had been talking to Ron, and he had been serious as he was when he was that young. He had just come out of the library and at the time she thought he was being silly when he had told her that he could never be the smartest person in the world. She thought it had been a game he had been playing. He told her that he was going to change, and he asked her to watch out for him in the future. She had agreed and offered to make a pinky promise. Ron had broken down crying and hugged her. Then they had made the promise. How had it gone?

"I promise to protect you Ron, no matter what the situation, because anything is possible, for a Possible."

She hadn't always lived up to that promise, but it had been her drive for much of her young life. It had been the reason she had learned all of her different martial arts. Now she finally understood what had happened on that day. She wished that she could allow herself to cry, but the tears would have blurred her eyesight, and she couldn't afford the distraction against the ten warlodians that she was fighting at the moment.

That meant that Ron had always been able to be smart. He knew about the Caretaker. He knew about the Caretaker, and so did Shego. And she, Ron's best friend, his girlfriend, didn't. That just didn't happen. She loved Ron, but suddenly her image of him acquired a crack. He had always trusted her about everything. Well… Everything important anyway. And he had gone and told Shego, and not her?

Things started to come together. It had started the night that Shego had stopped DNAmy at the museum. Ever since then Ron had been treating her nicer, and giving her looks that Kim couldn't identify. Kim had even caught them talking alone, only for them to immediately change the topic when she came close. At the time Kim had talked herself out of jealing, remembering Yori. She had forgotten that Shego wasn't Yori, and that what she wanted, she took.

But that Ron was cheating on her. That was the big one. Ron had never seemed like that type of person. But then he had never hid something like the Caretaker from her before either. Kim wasn't sure what to think, but she felt worry in her stomach (just before it got ripped out of her and she remembered that tensing up in a fight at this level was lethal). All she knew was that she would have to have a long talk with Ron, and with Shego.

She never would have guessed that Shego liked Ron though. She had seen Shego giving Ron interested looks before, but then, Shego had given her the same looks, so she had just written it off as a quirk that was unique to Shego. However if she was interested in Ron, and she was trying to seduce him, or using this secret as leverage over him, then she would have to have a long girl to girl talk with that involved a stern warning at the end of it.

Yes, Kim thought darkly, there would be a lot to talk about when she finally finished the way.

She took notice of her surroundings again and realized that she wasn't sure how long she had been training. All she knew that her soul was starting to feel tired. That was the only way she could describe it. Her body was fine, but her emotions were growing darker and darker. She was starting to feel suicidal. And when she paid attention to what the Shadow said she was shocked.

"Welcome to step thirty four billion fifty eight million nine hundred thirteen thousand six hundred ninety seven on The Way"

Kim looked at the army of Warlordians with their weapons their shields and watched in surprise as she moved through them taking weapons from their owners and turning it upon the hapless wielders. Personal shields shattered, invisibility was seen through. She felt like a spectator in her own body, as she danced through them, and watched them fall in scores. Every punch was now as strong as the one she had hit Warhawk with in the first battle. She didn't waste motions or time on anything less. And then, to her surprise, she was at the last one. It was in the shape of Warmonger, and it was unarmed. She had lost her staff blocking a punch from the second last one, and so she was unarmed too.

Kim could have gone for a weapon, but that would have wasted time, instead she directed a punch into the ground and hit the warlordian in the chest with a quivering palm that sent the equivalent of a hundred punches directly into the chest of the warlordian. There was a look of shock on Warmonger's face as she collapsed. To the ground, her heart and lungs destroyed by the attack that had bypassed her armor.

Kim looked around the battle field and didn't see a single enemy. She realized, belatedly that she had won. This was her first win, and she didn't feel elated as she had expected. Rather, she felt gladness that the warlodians that she had fought were only constructs of imagination. The scene was gruesome, and absently she wiped her bloody hands on her pants.

The scene faded away and the Shadow spoke, ""Welcome to the last step on The Way" then it faded out, and Kim saw that for this last fight, she would be fighting herself.

She prepared herself, and leapt forward at the same time her doppelganger did. They clashed in the air, neither one getting and early advantage. Landing on the ground they turned and started fighting, neither one taking the time to reposition themselves. Kim knew that the briefest moment of imbalance would be fatal. Each attack was lethal, and each one was blocked. The ground beneath their feet began to groan and crack from the stress that was being put on it. Still they fought on, neither one able to gain the advantage.

Kim refused to lose this last fight, but everything she tried to do to succeed was defended against. There seemed no way to defeat her double. As she fought she wondered if maybe this was a test of some sort, if maybe there was another answer. For the first time, Kim said something in the middle of battle that was not a curse, or a taunt.

"Why," she asked, "Are we fighting."

"I don't know," answered her double.

Kim thought about it for a moment, "Want to stop?"

"Sure" answered the other Kim.

They paused for an instant in their fighting, and that instant lengthened into a pause. That pause continued as they backed away cautiously from each other until they were outside of combat distance. Then the other Kim dissolved back into the Shadow. It bowed to her, "Master"

"Teacher" Replied Kim.

And then the world dissolved and she found herself on the walkway in a sewer with Ron helping her to her feet. She blinked for a second getting her bearings. She could still feel the muscles that she had gained in her mind, which made her wonder if the entire thing had been all in her head or not. However she pushed that aside and focused on the important things.

"Why did you hide this from me?" she asked Ron, glancing down at her hands. They felt the same, but she could feel power in them that she had never had before. She knew that she could destroy concrete with them and not break a sweat. It was a strange feeling.

She looked back up at Ron as he replied, "Because…. Well… I didn't want him to freak out. He is supposed to be a secret. I didn't find out about him till Shego confided him to tell me." He scratched the back of his head as he talked, and for a moment she wanted to hug him and tell him that she believed and trusted him. Then she remembered all the stuff that had happened with Shego, and how he had hidden this from her and turned away from him.

They had more important things to deal with right now anyway, "I am not going to ask right now. But we are about to have a five day trip in a space ship together, and I want some answers from both of you. However now is not the time for this drama. We have to get to GJ now! The Rocket is scheduled to launch in 20 minutes. Drakken's waiting for us." She said, trying to keep her voice calm and neutral. She wasn't sure if she trusted Ron, and now she knew she didn't trust Shego, but that was secondary. The fate of the world was at stake, and she had to go off and save it. After all, she had promised Ron that she would protect him.

.x.X.x.

A/N: So for the first time we diverge from Shego's point of view and follow Kim. I want to give a special thank you to CajunBear73 for being my best reviewer. Thanks man... or bear... or whatever... You make my day! Would you like to be my Beta in the future? Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I was originally not going to include this, but Kim's jump in fighting skill seemed like too big of a plot point to gloss over the more I looked at it. I also want to say that anyone who wants to write a derivative work of this has permission. I have had one or two requests, so go for it guys.

Also next chapter will be the first time that Drakken appears in this fic. So if someone could please tell me what color eyes he has, I would be quite grateful.

Finally, this marks the most writing I have every done in a single day! W00t!

Jak in Black and White signing out


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